A site about recovering from a stroke

Synergistic Movement

When I first had my stroke, I couldn’t do much. I was really good at laying there. But I had to go to physical therapy. I didn’t want to, trust me. In physical therapy one of their main goals was to get me walking again. At first, whenever I tried to walk every muscle on my right side would flex. This means that when I would try to walk(it probably happened at other times but I really noticed it with walking) my elbow would bend, my shoulder would come up, my wrist would curl, etc. This is called synergistic movement and is NORMAL right after a stroke. It GOES AWAY. You should be told this but you may not be. Synergistic movement doesn’t allow your muscles to work independently, everything contracts at the same time. This is extremely distressing, I know. I knew it would go away but it still really bothered me. Also, some therapists might not be as educated as they should be about it. Just go with the flow, it gets better. A great blog, this post talks about synergistic movement.

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Disclaimer…

This blog IS NOT intended to be medical advice of any sort. I am writing about my experiences, my knowledge, and my opinions. My goal is to tell people what I'm going through and hopefully help someone.
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All that being said, rest assured that everything you read on this blog is written by a highly educated, highly trained, and highly experienced medical practitioner.
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Dr. Amy Elder (formerly Shissler) PT, DPT, Cert. MDT------my full name and title